I love secrets. I love having them, and I love hiding them … I also love keeping the secrets of others. The attractions of secrets are many — there is exclusivity, desire and danger, there can also be comraderie and friendship.
One of my favourite writers, Helene Cixous, often discusses secrets and the need to hide them. She says:
We constantly believe we must repress, forget and bury. Yet this isn’t true. The desire to bury hides a much more twisted desire: Man wants to be seen burying — wants to be discovered in the middle of hiding.
I have loved this quote for years … and it popped into my mind this afternoon while reading this very interesting post that asks "why don’t creatives blog?" (thanks to Jon Howard for this). Some way down in the comments was an admission by Anna, that she DOES in fact blog, but has not, as yet given the address to anyone. That reminded me of Katie, who had been blogging for some time before she finally relented and gave me the URL.
This strange game is very much a part of the process of writing (and therefore blogging). On one hand, we love the idea of blogging only for ourselves, but secretly, there is a desire to be found, blog-handed, writing for others — reaching out to the communities that spring up around our words and ideas.
I have a friend, Tammy, who contributes to many blogs, but does not yet have her own. I wonder if this is true … or whether she has a secret blog. I, myself, have a secret blog where I write other, non-marketing stuff. How many others have secret blogs? Let me know … go on — you know you want to!
Yup. I have a secret blog.
I have two of my own and one group secret blog… I’m a bad, bad person… 😉
“secret” is, of course, simply a relative term. It’s just a matter of “disclosure” more than anything.
No secret blogs but I do have a couple of imagnary ones.
I had found Simon’s blog entry and had a similar thought. The secret blogs to me are many of those you link here. Thank you.
My blog URL was a secret for about 10 days, and then I couldn’t help myself and told the world. I am a marketer and communicator, after all.
Tim, that is funny … I nearly added a sentence at the end saying “The only person who COULD NOT POSSIBLY have a secret blog is Tim Jackson as he already writes way too many in his own right.”
Helen, I love the idea of an imaginary blog. Much more reliable than an imaginary friend!
Valeria, that is exactly the point I was making … we can have a secret like this for only so long — and then at some point we want the secret to be shared.
Whereas someone like Marcus just likes to tease 😉
Gavin my friend… too funny. I haven’t been to any of those secret blogs and posted in quite some time because I’m stretched so thin, but I always know they are there. That’s the beauty of having a secret spot; you can come and go as you please. When I have the itch, I go… when I’m not itchy… I post in the public eye.
Maybe we all have a few secrets?
You bring up such an interesting issue here for bloggers. Just before the holidays, a blog I was reading mysteriously went silent. Its regular visitors began to leave comments asking its blogger: Where are you? Is all o.k.? etc.
A few days ago, the blogger resurfaced. Her mother-in-law found her blog and read her the riot act about it! It completely silenced the blogger, caused intense family friction, problems with her husband. She’s given up blogging for now, trying to re-group and take a breather. But I think it’s been on many minds. And she never told us how her M-I-L found it…
Kept secrets are one thing; discovered secrets are another entirely.
I’ve actually thought about writing a “secret” marketing blog! (I’m a former marketing manager, and I can’t seem to stay away from it). We’ll see what happens. 😉
KG … Sharon Sarmiento brought up this very interesting topic a while back … take a look here:
http://servantofchaos.typepad.com/soc/2006/10/blogs_are_the_n.html
The crossover between personal blogs and personal lives can be VERY interesting. Sometimes it is easy to forget that your readers (even if they don’t comment) come to have a sense of relationship with you — and expect to know what is going on. It is part of the commitment that you make with your community.
Thanks, Gavin. I’ll take a look at Sarmiento’s article.